I was remembering my first book signing experience recently and went back and found my old livejournal blog post about seeing Stephenie Meyer when she was on tour for Eclipse. It was a great memory for me, especially since I'm such a fan of Twilight, that I wanted to talk about it on my blog now. And luckily I made an audio of the Q&A for that signing so I can relive that again. It's so strange to think that this was before things got really crazy with Twilight mania. The movie hadn't come out yet, but there was still an enthusiasm for Stephenie that I haven't really seen for any single YA author book signing I've been to yet. I got to the event and was pretty surprised to see how many people came and how many were showing their Team Edward or Team Jacob support. (I was wearing a Team Edward shirt btw!) I'm not sure how many were there, but I was pretty taken aback at seeing so many fans of this series. But definitely things were escalated when Breaking Dawn came out the next year and Stephenie had to have her signing at Royce Hall at UCLA which is a 1,800 seat theatre!

The Q&A went by very quickly - Stephenie didn't give a speech, but began taking questions immediately. What I was struck with, listening to this audio again after so many years, was how specific the questions asked were. There were so many aspects of these books that everyone had throughly thought about and sometimes it felt like people were asking about real people. And that was probably aided by the answers Stephenie gave which were so specific as well. It was interesting to hear her talk about these characters in that way. For instance there was a question on what was Jacob's relationship with Bella now that she had chosen Edward. Which led to Stephenie remarking that she heard some boos when Jacob's name was mentioned and she felt for him because Edward can take care of himself, but Jacob is still a kid.

One fun and oddly specific question was 'are vampires ticklish' which Stephenie said she had never been asked before. Her answer was she didn't know but she was sure Emmett would try.

At the very beginning of the Q&A Stephenie thanks the audience for making her feel like a rock star, and it's funny to hear people cheer so much in the audio - she does seem like a rock star. So now here's a clip! The audio recorder I used to make this 7 years ago was not as good as my iPhone so the sound is tinny unfortunately. I thought this particular clip was interesting because the first question asked is about the status of the movie. There's also questions about what does The Host being an 'adult' book mean, on the distinct personalities of her characters, who should play Edward and who she likes more Edward or Jacob. (Such a diplomatic answer on that last one)

The signing itself I really don't remember much. I think it took awhile to get to Stephenie, but I think the line went much longer behind me. Stephenie was only personalizing one book, and I feel like there was a three book limit too for her autograph. I think the only thing I managed to say to her besides thanks is to ask if her hand hurts from all the signing. Really original. (I still don't know how authors can sign for so long!)